Apple pulls image search app over porn pics

But are they pornographic or just nude?

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Apple has stricken 500px's photo-sharing apps from the App Store because they allow users to hunt down nude photographs.

The gatekeepers of the iOS App Store explained that the app was taken down "for featuring pornographic images and material" although the app developer maintains that the app, skewed towards proper photography and "art", allows nudes but draws the line at pornography.

Apple disagrees, saying that it "also received customer complaints about possible child pornography".

"Art"

It raises question marks over where the line is drawn between nudes, a staple of the art world for hundreds if not thousands of years, and pornographic images - and whether Apple (or its customers) is best placed to decide where that line should fall.

Is it really within Apple's remit to decide what's porn and what's art?

Apple has "asked the developer to put safeguards in place to prevent pornographic images and material in their app", something that 500px says it has done and submitted for reconsideration.

The company was also keen to stress that the app defaults to 'safe search' - if you want to track down people in the buff, you have to adjust your settings accordingly.

So for now, iOS users won't be able to download 500px for iOS nor ISO500 while the tweaked app is in the hands of the App Store reviewers.